When did you start getting interested in cooking?

Jamie, My love for cooking started in my mother's kitchen. I started baking cookies when I was just about 7 years old. I didn't have a recipe. I would just remember what I saw my Mom put in the cookies she had made earlier in the week. They always turned out very good. (At least to me!! ) I kind of got out of cooking when I married a man who loved to cook himself. He took over the kitchen. I did continue to bake and still do. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, my hubby, my daughter and I all end up in the kitchen having a blast. All of us are cooking something different and having a wonderful time. Great memories! Thanks!

Re: When did you start getting interested in cooking?

I've always been someone who was interested in cooking and bakery. My first experiences were baking Christmas biscuits with my mum. When I was 6 or 7 I was given a Cookbook for children. But I was somehow never allowed to cook properly until the age of 13 or 14. That was when I learned to know Jamie on TV. he inspired me and encouraged me so that I annoyed my parents till the let me cook a real meal. Since then I'm cooking as often as I can.

Re: When did you start getting interested in cooking?

I was always interested in cooking but was not allowed to cook much..apart from noodles or warming up preprepared dishes. Serious cooking started when I was unemployed for 6 month and offered to cook for the family (6 people) until I could start the new job.First it was mostly "safe" dishes like spaghetti or roast potatoes..but I practiced and read cookbooks and got better.I still love cooking, have taken cooking lessons too and try to prepare at least one complete meal for my own family now. And I teach my children how to cook

Re: When did you start getting interested in cooking?

My interest in cooking started when we lived in Sri Lanka, Obviously you could not buy certain western foods and as a teenager that was a bit of a culture shock.

I read lots of recipe books my mom brought over. I especially checked out the cookie and cake sections from The Joy and I think there was a great one bowl chocolate cake from The New York Times cookbook. I was forced to make this flourless hazelnut cake for my mom countless times I wonder where that recipe went?

Re: When did you start getting interested in cooking?

My interest in cooking started when I was quite young as I had to help out in the kitchen because of my mother's continued poor health.I tried very hard to help out and learn as much as I could. My dad had a big veggie garden so there were always fresh veggies to pick and prepare.

I became much more interested in cooking food and experimenting and entertaining when I left home and lived in a shared house with friends.

My OH was a great cook when I met him and together we have strolled down the culinary road trying out new things and reinventing old favourites, and passing this knowledge onto our children and grandchild.

Re: When did you start getting interested in cooking?

I guess I am a late bloomer. Though I did the usual perfunctuary cooking for my family through the years, even for shearers at one stage, my absolute love for cooking started just a few years back after walking free. While I was finding myself, I found a joy for cooking to the extent of pulling a recipe apart and creating my own version, or simply creating something new. My adult children know there is always a home to come home to with good ole nourishing, homely food. Because we are living on a low income I have learnt that good food can be produced low cost, yet quite a good variety, nothing like the fish pie produced from canned smoked salmon as I was brought up on.One adult child now works in a cafe kitchen, the other a male is quite adept in the kitchen. Not bad tools for anyone to know. Food need not be an issue, being diet conscious, and yes I guess at times I do carry a few excess pounds, mind you don't they say 'you can't trust a skinny baker'.

Re: When did you start getting interested in cooking?

my mom was a great cook of the meat & potatoes school although a little too much influenced by the 1950's 'convenience foods', frozen veg being her downfall. Her favorite cookbook: "The I Hate to Cook Book" by Peg Bracken, featuring pot roast with dry onion soup packets etc. -- it was all really good though (except the frozen brussels sprouts ) -- but reading that book, which was written with a lot of humor, made me think cooking could be fun.was encouraged to make breakfast for the family on weekends (suspect it was a way to keep me busy, being the first one awake on saturday) - eggs, French toast, crepes, pancakes etc. - age 10watched Julia Child, Graham Kerr (for his humor), other early TV chefs.

Re: When did you start getting interested in cooking?

Standing on a chair at the kitchen bench as soon as I could stand on a chair. Then it progressed to rolling biscuits and flattening them with a fork. Even at 3 or 4 I had the perservence to roll and squash and sprinkle large batches of biscuits. It kind of progressed from there. I am a chemist (a real one, not a pharmacist) and cooking and chemistry go hand in hand.

Oddly, Mr Rabbit does more cooking than I do, even though he came to it later than me he has a certificate in commercial cookery (doesn't work as a cook though) .

Re: When did you start getting interested in cooking?

nzhippy wrote:

Re: When did you start getting interested in cooking?

I think I never really started to get interested - I simply was interested in cooking from baby on. As long as I can remember I was left to play with my mom's pots and pans and wrapped in dad's apron and I often sat next to the stove watching. That almost killed me as a three-year-old when my mom tipped over a pot of boiling water. I got burned badly (life threatening), but as soon as I was fine again, I was back spying and trying to help....Then later (from when I was 12 I think) mom and I had the deal that the one who was home first would cook. (I started that when I came home early one day and was so hungry that I just started cooking, and when mom came home it was ready to be served).

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